The Police Police. More evil than the BigBad, DiabolicalMastermind or SerialKiller, Internal Affairs is the true enemy of the CowboyCop and everything s/he stands for, as they're usually on a crusade to get the Cowboy Cop -- who they see as being just as bad as, if not worse than, the criminals he pursues -- thrown off the force with all due haste.

As the Cowboy Cop is most often the hero, however, the cops working for Internal Affairs are therefore often characterized as [[StrawmanPolitical humorless, prissy and self-righteous]] {{desk jockey}}s who have no real understanding of what it's really like out there on the streets -- because if they did, then there's no way that they'd get so morally uptight and outraged about the Cowboy Cop's complete ignorance of correct police operating procedure and flagrant disregard for the basic human rights of the suspect. Indeed, a frequent method of {{Anvilicious}}ly highlighting the moral superiority of the Cowboy Cop compared to these cops is to have him or her angrily hiss "What about the ''victim's'' rights?" when getting chewed out by Internal Affairs -- to which the ObstructiveBureaucrat will of course have [[EasyEvangelism no answer]] [[TheWarOnStraw whatsoever]]. In these cases, Internal Affairs seems dedicated to promoting a system of justice which actively ''protects'' the guilty whilst forcing the innocent to suffer.

It's not just the Cowboy Cop, though; the entire ''department'' seems to loathe the Internal Affairs cops with a passion. This suits the Internal Affairs cops just fine, however, as more often than not they're depicted as complete ball-breaking pricks who aren't interested in being liked by ''anyone''; protecting the integrity of the force is simply more important. DaChief often has a grudge against these guys as well, as they often overrule his authority and demand that he force the Cowboy Cop to [[TurnInYourBadge turn in his badge]].

Another role for Internal Affairs in fiction is to have one of their officers infiltrate a police station undercover with the intent of exposing some form of corruption, only to gradually form friendships (and even LoveInterests) with the cops they are meant to be investigating. This can result in all manner of complications and angst galore when the undercover officer's role is finally exposed.

In the most positive portrayals, these are the cops that a cop protagonist can turn to when they see corruption and cannot stop it themselves. At the end, when the hero has proved his allegation, the IA cops will be the ones who come to haul away the crooked cops with the hero cop standing back, regretting such measures were necessary.

This is, in some ways, TruthInTelevision, as for obvious reasons there's tension between regular police officers and the regulatory authorities assigned to watch over them in real life (just as tensions exist between police officers and civilians, for much the same reasons). However, the CowboyCop and his supporters tend to forget or overlook the fact that the rules and regulations that Internal Affairs so staunchly uphold exist for a reason. Like them or not, without Internal Affairs keeping the worst excesses of police authority and corruption in check, things wouldn't be very pleasant.

Occasionally, this will be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by making Internal Affairs ''right'', and the Cowboy Cop [[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen actually deserve]] having to [[TurnInYourBadge turn in his badge]].

SubTrope to TheInspectorIsComing and a SisterTrope to TheInquisitorGeneral, which is much more common in military settings.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]* The Inspectors from LyricalNanoha franchise are this for the [[SpacePolice Time-Space Administration Bureau]]. Although the fluff claims there are inspectors assigned to each Bureau branch and administrated world, we only see one, Verossa Acous, who is in charge of monitoring the Riot Force 6 in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers''.* In ''Manga/SoulEater'' Joe is a member of DWMA's Internal Affairs branch, called in to investigate when it looked like there was a mole sabotaging their missions. In spite of the circumstances, he is amiable and seems to be on good terms with the staff. [[spoiler: As the reader can see the person he is looking for is Crona acting on Medusa's orders, it comes as a surprise when there is ''another'' Mole - Justin Law - who kills Joe moments after the investigator recognises the 'priest's' Face Heel Turn.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* Largely subverted in ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'', since most of the main cast are [[ByTheBookCop by the book cops]]. That doesn't mean they ''like'' IAD cops -- but IAD are generally shown as honest guys doing an unpleasant job without malice.** The main IA cop featured even goes a bit rogue in one of his investigations. In order to help Detective Allen stay on the force, he surrenders a crucial bit of evidence in his investigation of corrupt CSU Jim Corrigan. He knows that it's better to have Allen on the force than Corrigan off it, and that Corrigan will screw up again. * In ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', Alpha Lanterns serves as that, having originally been Green Lanterns who've been given robotic implants to better serve the Corps. They're also portrayed as complete jerks. [[spoiler: And to no one's surprise, they wind up turning evil.]]** [[spoiler: Mind control by the Cyborg Superman; turns out removing their emotions makes them easy targets]]* ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'':** The Special Judicial Service perform this function for the [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner Judges]] of Mega-City One. The [[Film/JudgeDredd movie]] gave them a uniform change to include [[FacelessGoons face-concealing helmets]] and were [[WhatMeasureIsAMook gunned down in large numbers by Dredd]].** In the storyline ''The Pit'', Dredd finds himself in this role, sent to clean up what was at the time the worst sector and the worst branch of the Judges in the city, with the Chief Judge unwilling to trust the local SJS. Needless to say, things improved by the time he left.* In ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'', a rather friendly internal affairs cop begins investigating Deena, easily the more violent of the protagonist duo, about a suspect's death in a hospital that occurred years ago in the comic. Deena's nervous for an entirely different and much more credible reason: she just murdered her ex-boyfriend in a fit of rage after secretly contracting ContagiousPowers.* A secondary character in ''[[Comicbook/AstroCity Astro City: Dark Age]]'' is an IA investigator trying to crack a ring of [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] in the Astro City PD, and is constantly harassing one of the protagonists (who is honest but has a dirty partner) to inform on them. She is portrayed as a bit of a JerkAss, but it's made clear that she acts like that out of frustration that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Code_of_Silence she can't even get honest cops to report on the dirty ones]].* Gordon mentions why the police dislike IA in ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', claiming they might dangle the carrot of good integrity but after the day is over everyone still treats you like any other scum bag if you take down a cop. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* Just such a subversion happened in a movie that was unsurprisingly called ''Internal Affairs''.* In ''Film/LethalWeapon3'', Rene Russo plays an Internal Affairs officer Lorna Cole, who harasses CowboyCop Riggs (Mel Gibson) before falling in love with him. Subverted, however, in that Lorna is revealed to be, in her way, even more of a CowboyCop than Riggs is.* Two words: Film/DirtyHarry. In the first movie, the D.A takes this role, complete with indignant "what about the rights of that little girl?" demand from Harry. In point of fact, Harry's is probably the trend-setter here.** What's often missed is that the D.A. is on Harry's side! The D.A. even says how he has kids and wants that scum off the streets but that '''the law''' says the bad guy must go free.** Then in ''Film/MagnumForce'', [[spoiler: Harry ends up becoming a Cowboy Internal Affairs Cop.]]* The Creator/SylvesterStallone movie ''Film/{{Cobra}}'' features a stereotypically nebbishy IA cop who angrily challenges Cobra as to whether his decision to execute a couple of criminals holding up a supermarket might have been excessive; Cobra's response is to punch his lights out. Stallone also punches him at the end of the movie when the IA cop makes a snide comment over how he'd have handled things a bit differently, but "No hard feelings". Stallone: "Sure (WHACK!) No hard feelings, Monty."* ''Film/TheCorruptor'': [[spoiler: The FBI think that Danny Wallace (MarkWahlberg) is a double agent for the mob but it's then revealed that Danny is an Internal Affairs officer sent to investigate Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) the head of the Asian Gang Unit (The FBI agent says something about how "Internal Affairs is worse than the mob"). Even later in the film Danny's ex-cop father returns the money Danny gave him (to pay off some debts to the mob) saying something along the lines of "I might have been dirty but at least I didn't stab my partners in the back."]]* In ''Film/StrikingDistance'' [[spoiler: Sarah Jessica Parker turns out to be an undercover IA, sent to investigate Bruce Willis, but winds up testifying on his behalf instead]].* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' comes closest to a subversion, featuring Harvey Dent (currently the District Attorney, but previously in internal affairs) doing his best to clean up the incredibly corrupt police force of Gotham, something that doesn't endear him to Lieutenant Gordon -- despite Gordon being one of the very few straight cops on the force. (In the previous movie, Gordon even said "I'm no rat!" despite his partner blatantly extorting money in front of him, though this may be explained by his weary, "Who's there to rat to?") However, [[spoiler: Dent turns out to be right all along, and a few of the crooked cops in the Major Crimes Unit lead to Rachel's death, and his own facial scarring. Needless to say, Harvey [[FaceHeelTurn isn't very happy about this]]. Those cops aren't exactly Cowboy Cops as much as straight-forward corrupt bottom-feeders, however.]]** Harvey was still a good guy for most of the movie and a main subversion of this stereotype. The Gotham City Police however, seemed to resent him greatly for his inspecting them (presumably because he put a lot of bad cops away), showing that sometimes it's hard to be liked in this job, even if you're doing the right thing. The cops even gave Dent the nickname [[spoiler: "Harvey-Two-Face."]] However, that nickname also reflected his strong GoodIsNotNice tendencies; nobody achieves high political office in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Totally-not]]-UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}-we-swear Gotham City just by kissing babies and making sympathetic noises when concerned citizens visit their office.* ''Film/AFewGoodMen'': Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway ''is'' Internal Affairs -- because she's a rotten lawyer, so making sure everyone else is doing things right is a perfect fit for her. And when there's a military conspiracy that needs taking down, that's a good combination to have.* The film ''Film/StreetKings'' actually had the LAPD Internal Affairs portrayed as good guys, or at least totally justified, as the cops they were investigating actually were corrupt. As it turns out, a large portion of the film is actually a BatmanGambit set up by Internal Affairs to try to get the one honest cop in the group to turn on his corrupt partners. The lead Internal Affairs agent even admits that there are uses for a CowboyCop.** This is a true subversion, though, because the first part of the movie definitely makes it look as if the Internal Affairs Department (and Creator/HughLaurie's character in particular) has some kind of personal vendetta against cops who are "only trying to do their jobs". As the movie goes on, though, there are more and more indications that the actions and suspicions of IAD are ''entirely'' justified.* In ''Film/{{Insomnia}}'', the main character Detective Dormer has some particularly nasty things to say about the Internal Affairs people hounding him. Of course, they're out to get him because [[spoiler:he [[FramingTheGuiltyParty fabricated evidence to send someone he thought was a child murderer to jail]] ]].* Ironically ''Film/{{Serpico}}'' is all for the idea of an Internal Affairs unit, as the New York City police department is steeped in corruption and absolutely no one on the force will do anything about it. One gets formed after he goes to the New York Times with his story. * ''Film/MaxPayne'' movie has a subversion: Lt. Bravura, who first seems to play the trope straight [[spoiler: by trying to pin the murder of a ''[[PsychoSerum Valkyr]]'' addict on Max]]. Later, though, he [[spoiler: starts to (correctly) suspect that corrupt officers are trying to set Max up and calls in the FBI to capture Max alive and figure out what ''really'' happened.]]* In ''Film/TheMan'', Creator/SamuelLJackson's character is a CowboyCop who is being investigated by IA after his partner turned out to be corrupt and was killed by a criminal. The IA investigator believes that corrupt cops usually have corrupt partners. He ends up leaving satisfied that he was wrong after the cop returns the money he borred for a sting operation.* In ''Film/BlueStreak'', Logan is a thief pretending to be a police detective. When his rookie partner checks out his backstory, he finds out it's fake. Logan takes him aside and pretends to be IA, claiming that the entire precinct is corrupt.* In ''Film/TheDeparted'', The Massachusets State Police just is lucky enough to appoint the resident snitch of TheIrishMob as their internal affairs officer. He is soon tasked with finding ''himself''. One can see [[HilarityEnsues how well that goes]].* In ''Film/DarkBlue'', Assistant Chief Holland, heading the IA department, is a major actor trying to expose Jack Van Meter's department for their constant abuse of power in the name of the law. The movie opens with Perry and Van Meter getting Bobby through an inquiry for alleged excessive use of force. [[spoiler:Later, Bobby helps them to atone for his homocide of an innocent man whom he and Perry framed for another crime.]]* The first ''BadBoys'' movie involves a subplot with Internal Affairs attempting to shut down the Miami PD's Narcotics division because they think that just because a guy was found dead in a police uniform that the Narcotics division had stolen a multi million dollar drug bust to sell for themselves, despite the police quickly finding out that the dead man in the uniform was not a member of the police.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Even compared to the poverty, vampires, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent homicidal FBI werewolves]], necromancers, fallen angels, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and normal thugs [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] faces, Internal Affairs of the Chicago PD is probably his worst enemy, undermining him at every turn and convinced he's nothing but a charlatan stealing city money... even after his extremely positive track record with the police. Which isn't even going into how much they hate Murphy and try to undermine ''her'' at every turn. They've even tried to throw Harry in jail in the second book, helped try to make him look like a terrorist. Think that's bad? The actual governing body he's part of, the [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness White Council]] is even '''worse'''. Morgan, a warden (The White Council's police and IA all in one) actively tries to kill him repeatedly, once with a really terrible excuse, and the much of the council hates him and thinks he's a dangerous element that practices black magic.* A.E. Pessimal in ''Discworld/{{Thud}}!'' is a thoroughly Pratchettian take on the trope. He's not really investigating misconduct so much as bad accounting and inefficiency. He ends up ''on'' the force specifically because of his skills in this department being badly needed...and because he always wanted to be a cop.%% ** Also reconstructed beautifully in the same book. Three words: [[spoiler: the Guarding Dark]].* In the ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series, [=SpecOps=]-1 is InternalAffairs to the rest of the [=SpecOps=] network.* Internal Affairs play an unusual role in the ''InDeath'' novels since despite Eve's kneejerk hostility to them, their gestures in the direction of investigating her are perfunctory and they're basically on her side any time someone accuses her of misbehaviour. It may help that an IA guy has a firm case of unrequited love for her.* Mainly played straight in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', but the worst of them all is [[spoiler: eventual LEP recon commander]] Ark Sool* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse** Implied in the XWingSeries. Corran and his partner were SpacePolice, and while their actual affairs guy, having once been active himself, was good about it, their Imperial liaison was unpleasant. As well as being unsociable and tending to frustrate investigations, he disliked Corran enough that when Corran's father was murdered by a BountyHunter, the liaison let the murderer walk, saying that the bounty hunter's poor manual dexterity meant it could have been an accident.** Not cops, but in ''Literature/{{Allegiance}}'' we see that the Imperial Security Bureau, or ISB (don't you love sinister three-letter acronyms?) serves much the same purpose as Internal Affairs, but for the Imperial military. Their major issue is loyalty to the Imperial cause; rights don't mean much. In fact, they go after a stormtrooper for [[NeverHurtAnInnocent refusing to gun down unarmed civilians]]; see, he was disobeying orders and may have been a Rebel sympathizer. ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Darth Vader]]'' doesn't like them, though for reasons involving suspicion and paranoia, not principles.* The Auditors are [[TheLaundrySeries The Laundry's]] Internal Affairs.* In Joseph Wambaugh's ''TheChoirboys'', long-serving vet Sergeant "Spermwhale" Whelan, a wily 19-year cop who knows all the tricks, is eventually brought down by IA, who have been gunning for him for years, with a threat to withdraw his twenty-year service pension for "gross misconduct". * Imperial Auditors in VorkosiganSaga. Their mission is not precisely defined; it is well summed up in, "Whenever TheEmperor wants to give a really bad time to someone too important to get at by other means." They have almost unlimited powers which is why they are usually chosen from old men who have reached the pinnacle of ambition.* Kira of the ''NightHuntress'' books tells Mencheres about her mentor, an IA officer who helped her put away the abusive, drug-dealing cop who was her first husband. He is portrayed as the man who came through for her in her darkest hour, against an example of the worst of what a cop can be.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has the Watcher's Council, who keeps its Slayers on a tight leash. In fact, they have an entire wetworks team dedicated to taking down rogue Slayers. The Watchers themselves (poor Giles) are also under close scrutiny.* ''Series/CSIMiami'' has issues with Internal Affairs practically ''every frickin' episode''. Including the undercover mole plotline.** Every CSI has had a few InternalAffairs episode, though Miami does have the most, and features the most jerkass Internal Affair officer, Sergeant Rick Stetler, [[spoiler:who may beat his girlfriend]].* On ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'', both Mac and Danny have had problems with InternalAffairs -- Mac particularly, as he seems to have something of a problem with people trying to tell him how to do his job.** Danny, though, has had more run-ins than Mac. In season one, he killed an undercover officer who shot at him, insisting that the guy never ID'd himself as a cop. The problem was, there was a cell phone recording of the guy identifying himself, which Danny insisted he never heard. Danny was only exonerated because his other bullet was never found, so there wasn't any evidence to move forward.** In season 8, Danny was out with his rookies during his time as a sergeant when two guys held them up. At first, it appears the young female cop fired because she was shot at, but it turned out she shot the guy without the gun. Danny didn't know what had happened because one of the perps [[GrievousBottleyHarm hit him over the head with a bottle]].She then lied to IA and said that Danny told her to lie because they were having an affair. There *was* a video where she was cuddling up to him, but that was all her; Danny was adamant he was faithful to Lindsay. Eventually, Lindsay pressured the rookie to admit she was scared and lied about telling Danny to lie.** Stella's had run-ins as well, getting called out twice for excessive force.* ''Series/WithoutATrace'' (also part of the [=CSIverse=]), has also shown that not even the FBI is safe from Internal Affairs, has they have to deal with the OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility).* FBI-focused ''Series/WhiteCollar'' had a recurring villain in the first two seasons in OPR Agent Fowler [[spoiler: who turned out to be a case of LawmanGoneBad: his wife was killed and then he killed her assassin, leaving himself open to blackmail by the big bad.]]* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' uses elements of this trope when FBI higher-ups investigate Hotchner's conduct when his ex-wife and son were pursued by an elusive serial killer. Subverted in that, while the head investigator (and Hotchner's boss, Erin Strauss) is dogged in her questioning and rubs all of Hotch's teammates the wrong way, she turns sympathetic when Hotchner himself relates how [[spoiler: his ex-wife had been killed and he'd beaten her murderer to death to save their little boy]].* In an episode of ''Series/HillStreetBlues'', an IA officer is sent undercover as a secretary to investigate the Hill Street station. The cops uncover her identity and are severely annoyed.* ''Series/TwentyFour'' does this all the time, from individuals sent from the Attorney General's office to moles placed by the White House. Some manage to contribute, most are unhelpful, and some end up being revealed as actually working for corrupt, if not terrorist, interests.* Every time that Internal Affairs appears in a ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' series, they're unhelpful at best.** Season 1's "Poison Ivy" begins with a police shooting, which (in a subversion) is initially cleared by InternalAffairs. Greevy and a reluctant Logan aren't so sure, and do their own investigating.** ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' even had an entire episode wherein TheFaceless IA bureaucrats got the story of how main characters "allegedly" beat up a kidnapper to get the location of a missing girl. Perplexingly, Cragen's indignation at Internal Affairs' position that beating up the guy poses a clear violation of even the kidnapper's human rights is presented as being the unquestionably morally righteous position. The episode even ended on a "those two dead people's rights"-style quote.** And then there was the case where IA attempted to "disappear" several girls to cover up an anthrax threat. They were only returned after the timely intervention of Olivia and a plucky reporter who exposed their acts to the public.** Pretty much one particular IA agent will jump at any accusation to Elliot Stabler no matter how obvious that said accusation is fake (such as a boy claiming he was molested by him to get the charges dropped to a husband having his wife beat him up so they can claim that Elliot was the one that did it) and no matter what he will fully believe the other side until solid evidences is shown they are lying.*** IA tried to use a justified shooting to screw Elliot Stabler over. Stabler ultimately decides to resign due to his own guilt over the shooting--he had to shoot a teenage girl to save the lives of the men who raped and murdered her mother--and his unwillingness to jump through IA's hoops. In that case, it also had to do with the fact that Elliot had been reported to Internal Affairs multiple times over the course of the series and had plenty of questionable actions on his file already, so even a justified shooting looked suspicious.*** After Elliot leaves the show, IA continues to pursue SVU, suddenly becoming presented as a miserable monster who want to destroy sex crimes for absolutely no reason. The main IA agent we see, Lieutenant Tucker, is not only specifically gunning for the detectives but is also Flanderized into being utterly inept, totally unconcerned with justice, cartoonishly evil, and sexist in case all that wasn't enough of a reason to hate him. When an officer is possibly being framed and IA is getting to the bottom of it, Fin even outright says, "IA doesn't find frames. They make 'em."** ''Series/LawAndOrder'' had a somewhat sympathetic IA detective played by Anthony Anderson in Jesse Martin's last episode. At one point he refers to his two-year assignment to IA being almost up, and the following week, what do you know, he's transferred to Homicide and replaced Martin's character.The Series averted this trope in that while IA were not portrayed as particularly competent, the Detectives had no love or loyalty for dirty Cops.** ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' had an episode where Logan and Wheeler had to go to an IA meeting after a fight that involved some firefighters. Wheeler is nervous, while Logan (who is a CowboyCop with one very thick discipline file) tells her not to worry.** Averted in ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' as IA Detective Gharty was portrayed as very sympathetic and none of the Cops had a problem turning in Killer Cops. Kellerman's persecution in Season Five was mostly bad luck and the cold treatment Gharty received was based more on apparent cowardice on his part.* In ''Series/ChicagoPD'' they frequently clash with total CowboyCop Voight. Given that he has to report to them, it makes for an interesting situation. While Voight is implied to have been dirty in the past, and may still be slightly dirty, both of the ones he deals with are total dicks, and slightly corrupt themselves.* Characters of this nature often appear on the various ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series. The most prominent example was in the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," where a department known as "Temporal Investigations" scrutinizes Captain Sisko over having traveled through time. These guys soften up at the end and are generally just doing their job, but, as even well-intentioned changes to the timeline can be catastrophic, they need to be hard on everyone. They also lament when Captain Kirk is brought up, who's traveled through time way too often for their tastes.* ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'': [[spoiler:It is revealed that Sam Tyler]] is an undercover cop assigned to Gene Hunt's unit to expose his corruption and rule-breaking so that he could be replaced with a more progressive superior -- [[spoiler:except he lost his memory and ended up going native. Of course, it's probably AllJustADream anyway.]]** And in ''AshesToAshes'', we have [[spoiler: the sinister Jim Keats]] who is determined to bring Gene's shady past to light. [[spoiler:Who is literally the Devil.]]* There was a French TV series whose main characters were a commissioner and an inspector from the French IA; the Inspection Générale des Services men are actually nicknamed "[[TitleDrop les Boeuf-Carottes]]" ("beef and carrots", a dish) because they have a tendency to "grill" the people they question.* The third season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' has a wildly inept internal affairs officer who is investigating a very mildly corrupt cop, but goes about it in a terrible way. She approaches his partner and asks for her help, gives no reasoning, and assumes she has the partner's assistance and continues harassing the partner. It also turns out she may have an ulterior motive for pursuing the cop (they used to be partners, with another cop who got killed due to a drug addiction which may have been preventable).** Calling her inept is a compliment. She shows up completely out of the blue, starts insulting and threatening Debra for doing absolutely nothing wrong, practically stalks her, keeps sending her obnoxious texts, despite on numerous occasions getting the literal response of " STOP FUCKING TEXTING ME," makes wild and incorrect assumptions, and in several cases, actively undermines perfectly legal and effective police work.** The first season has Angel torn over reporting to Internal Affairs over an incident regarding Doakes apparently opening fire on a man unprovoked, fearing that the rest of the department will regard him as a rat, as well as being Doakes' friend (and initially trying to get the truth of the matter from him). He does end up providing an incriminating report, but the case is thrown out due to intercession on the basis of national security (Doakes' victim was a former death squad member who he knew from his black ops days). Doakes doesn't end up holding it against him, and threatens a cop who insults Angel.* In the later seasons of ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', this function is performed by the IOA. They're sometimes right, but most of the time the IOA as a whole is treated as a bunch of {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s.** The most important (plot-wise) of them is Woolsey, who starts as one of SG-1's detractors, while raising quite a few valid objections (like "Shouldn't we consider stopping the project that nearly caused the destruction of our planet on various occasions ?"), becomes more a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and finally gets at the head of Atlantis in the last seasons.*** Interestingly, immediately after arriving and making a speech about how he intends to have everyone play by the rules from now, he is confronted by a crisis that leads him to break quite a few rules to save the day (he give the list to Sheppard at the end of the episode). He does not like what it means about his beliefs. * There's been plenty of run-ins between the detectives of ''Series/ColdCase'' and IA, but the most blatant has to be in season 5, where an ongoing arc has one of the detectives feeling major heat from them over whether or not his shooting a suspect during a hostage situation the previous season was by the book. IA was using it screw him over for a previous mistake.* Internal Affairs frequently appears on ''TheShield'', and the entire Arc of Season 5 revolves around a particularly persistent IA officer hounding the Strike Team. The show also subverted it with Lt. Jon Kavanaugh. Beginning as a straight, if extremely unconventional, IAD officer, he metamorphosed into a CowboyCop himself, with a stop at LargeHam along the way.* One episode of the short-lived revival of ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' had Joe Friday the subject of an Internal Affairs hearing, with the events told in flashback. In this case though, IAD had a legitimate concern, and Sgt. Friday was honest and non-confrontational. Furthermore, the IAD's investigation is as thorough and professional as Friday's always are and they find the evidence that his actions were completely justified under the circumstances. But then, Joe Friday is [[ByTheBookCop the polar opposite]] of the CowboyCop.** The above example harkens back to "The Shooting Board", a 1968 ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' episode. Friday walks in on an attempted robbery at a self-service laundromat and exchanges gunfire with the thief, wounding him. Things turn bad, though, when the thief turns up dead, the slug from his gun isn't found, there are no independent witnesses, and his accomplice lies that Friday fired the only shot. Throughout, Friday is tense and worried, but isn't hostile towards the IAB officers or the review board, both of whom are sympathetic but professional. In the end, the IAB detectives find the missing slug, leading to a memorable epilogue: Friday, himself, on camera as the narrator reveals the result ("Sgt. Joe Friday: Returned to Duty").** There was also the episode in the 1960s version where Friday and Gannon ''were'' the Internal Affairs: they were investigating the shooting of a liquor store clerk where the chief suspect was a rookie undercover narcotics officer (Kent Mccord, pre-''Series/AdamTwelve'' ), who had been picked out of a line-up by an eyewitness. He turns out to be innocent (mistaken identity), and spends most of the episode understandably stressed out and angry at being a suspect at all, but Friday & Gannon never move from their professional yet sympathetic stance.** In another episode, Friday is picked as a defender by a cop accused of taking a bribe from a bookie. He said it was because he knew Friday would pull out the stops to defend him if he really was innocent. Friday agreed, but contended he made a lousy lawyer because he'd want the guy convicted if he was guilty. Ultimately, the guy is found guilty of a couple of the charges, but not all of them.* ''Series/AdamTwelve'' got into it as well, in an episode where Reed and Malloy exchange fire with a sniper at a residence. Reed has to be investigated and his actions checked out to ensure that he was justified in firing his weapon and shooting the suspect. Reed is stressed, but ultimately, his actions were found justified.** Then there was a ''Dragnet'' episode that crossed over when Friday and Gannon were investigating a claim that a patrolman struck someone who was drunk and verbally abusive. Reed and Malloy were the other unit that responded, and were interviewed. Everyone involved is given a chance to explain, and in the end the patrolman is suspended for overreacting.* The Australian mini-series ''Phoenix'' had Major Crimes constantly butting heads with the Victorian Police internal affairs unit, nicknamed the 'toecutters' (after a notorious Melbourne gang which tortured people by cutting their toes off). Unsurprising as this RippedFromTheHeadlines series was made at a time when the Victorian police were catching a lot of flack for their methods, especially police shootings (explored particularly in the LawProcedural spin-off ''Janus'').* ''TheWire'' featured one of the more cynical takes on the role of IA, particularly in the first season. Major Reed, the head of IID, was Deputy Commissioner Burrell's pitbull, preventing Lt. Daniels' detail from pursuing leads that Burrell didn't want them pursuing. It had nothing to do with making sure the police were following the law; it was purely about making sure they were following Burrell's orders.** IA gets used cynically again later in the show. Herc (a white policeman) causes problems for Carcetti (newly elected white mayor in a mostly black town) when Herc use excessive force and humiliates a black preacher he arrested over a misunderstanding. If Carcetti caves to the deacons who want Herc gone over this, he looks weak, and like someone who can be pushed around. If he doesn't, then he's a white man who doesn't care when a white cop pushes a pillar of the black community around. Burrell proposes a way out: have IA come down on Herc for other reasons unconnected to the preacher incident, and have him bounced off the police force that way.* ''Series/AgainstTheWall'' is about a police officer who just joined IA, with the full belief that she can protect innocent police officers. Her family full of cops practically disown her after this.* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In the season five episode "Contemptuous Words", Harm is suspected of having written an unsigned op-ed piece in newspaper denigrating the then-president UsefulNotes/BillClinton, and internal affairs are brought in.-->'''Admiral Chegwidden''': Hell, I tried to keep this thing in-house, but to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, pursuit of the matter’s been turned over to the Office of Inspector General.-->'''Commander Rabb''': OIG? Admiral, they land a crooked JAG, their budget goes up.-->'''Admiral Chegwidden''': Oh, hell yes.* In addition to investigating crimes committed against members of the Navy and Marines, ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is frequently those military branches' internal affairs bureau...which doesn't always endear them to the servicemen and women.* Done on ''Series/SavingGrace'' when Grace ended up with a temporary new partner, Abby. Even thought Abby didn't find anything wrong with the squad, DaChief was still pissed off, and Ham let rats out at Abby.* Apparently averted by ''Series/{{Southland}}''. When the rookie cop has to shoot a perp in the line of duty, he's told by his veteran partner to get everything out in the open with [=IA=], who will make sure everything goes okay.* A ''Series/ThirdWatch'' storyline had FairCop patrol officer Sasha Monroe revealed as an Internal Affairs detective working undercover to investigate the death (actually a murder) of a suspect responsible for the shooting of another cop. When her deception is discovered, the other cops are so disgusted by her that she is actually left on her own while pursuing a dangerous suspect and nearly killed by him.* ''The Bridge'' has Internal Affairs being corrupt and going after any cop that the division commander or deputy chief do not like. Their hamfisted handling of two incidents cause the protagonist Frank Leo to call for a walkout and then for him become a candidate for head of the police union.** IA investigates a veteran cop for accepting a bribe from a pedophile and the cop kills himself. The IA investigator on the case was actually about to subvert the trope and exonerate the cop fully and is so angry at his superiors that he becomes an ally of Frank.** IA tries to pin a murder and numerous robberies on Frank with no real evidence. The death was a clear case of self defense and Frank had nothing to do with the robberies. His union lawyer is so incompetent that he actually let's them get away with making the accusations and thinks that Frank should plead guilty.** In the end Frank has to become this trope himself since there really are some very bad cops on the force and as the new head of the union he has to root them out to protect the good ones.* Sgt. Martens of ''NYPDBlue'' was a rare three-dimensional example. He was zealous, but not to the point of being a caricature. Capt. Fraker, on the other hand...** Martens once investigated an officer who had fired his gun and decided the shooting was reasonable given the situation. He later confessed that this was the kind of situation he hated -- he knew that the cop, while honest, wasn't really suited for police work, and that, by making him "right" on the shooting, Martens was virtually guaranteeing that there would be more trouble somewhere down the road.* ''Series/TheCloser'' has the Force Investigation Division, headed by Captain Sharon Raydor. Although she and heroine Brenda Leigh Johnson absolutely loathe one another, Raydor is portrayed unusually in that she is not only given redeeming qualities, but is shown to be a skilled and honorable investigator who knows precisely how disliked she and her department are and passionately wishes there was a different way to do things, and Brenda respects her and considers her job a necessary evil. (Raydor and Johnson also work quite well together when [[EnemyMine they team up for cases]].)[[note]]When Brenda leaves the LAPD for the District Attorney's office, it's Sharon Raydor who steps in as the new head of her department -- and as the lead of the AfterShow ''MajorCrimes''.[[/note]]-->'''Brenda''': When police officers get shot, they're investigated by me. When they shoot back, they're investigated by you. That means they will think twice before defending themselves. That hesitation means more good cops will die. I have to ask - have you ever considered what your principles cost?-->'''Raydor''': Seventy million. That was the settlement in the Rampart case. One hundred. That's how many convictions were overturned due to renegade policing and lack of oversight in one division alone, not to mention the loss of trust the LAPD needs to remain effective.-->'''Brenda''': There has to be a better way.-->'''Raydor''': Well, until then, you've got me.* ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' unsurprisingly plays this one dead straight, with the Internal Affairs officers being presented as unreasonable and unlikable bastards for wanting one of our heroes arrested after his ex-wife is shot dead in his apartment with his gun and stolen property is found in his car. More unusually, in another episode the head of Internal Affairs is actually ''leading a ring of vigilante cops'' (although he had been viewed as a good guy who the heroes respected before his vigilante actions were revealed.)** Made all the more ironic by the fact that Starsky and Hutch technically do IA's job for them on multiple occasions, when they investigate corrupt fellow cops (like Iron Mike) in the face of disbelief and resistance (usually from Dobey.) It sometimes seems like the ''entire'' BCPD, including IA, is rotten from the top down.* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':** IA shows up in the form of Lt. Holliwell shows up when a case touches on Detective Esposito's old partner, who it transpires faked his own death under suspicion of corruption, with significant evidence pointing to him being the murderer of the week. Although none of the detectives are exactly {{Cowboy Cop}}s, naturally Holliwell takes the opportunity to renew his antagonism with Esposito and, in general, the other members of the unit. [[spoiler: In something of a subversion, Holliwell turns out to be the corrupt one.]]** Captain Victoria Gates, the replacement to Captain Roy Montgomery, was also previously assigned to Internal Affairs, which creates tension with her new subordinates. She eventually explains to Beckett that she worked in IA not because she hates other cops (her father and uncles were cops), but because some of them really ''are'' dirty and people need protection against them just as much as against ordinary criminals.* Strongly subverted with the BBC series ''Series/BetweenTheLines'' centered around the London Metropolitan Police's variant of Internal Affairs -- the Complaints Investigation Bureau (since renamed the Directorate of Professional Standards). The officers are seen as decent individuals performing a totally necessary role (in a world where policemen generally are corrupt enough to beat suspects, forge confessions and run their own private businesses on paid time). While the show is sometimes cynical about the outcomes of investigations, it makes it quite clear that corruption exists and shouldn't be condoned.* ''LineOfDuty'' is another BBC series subversion, based on the Anti-Corruption Unit AC-12 as the protagonists. Again, the officers are depicted as decent people who are performing a necessary role. The problem is that, as with most decent people, they all have their own significant faults, and the CrapsackWorld full of BlackAndGreyMorality they're situated in means that their investigations rarely result in happy endings.* Parodied on ''NTSF:SD:SUV::'' where the Internal Affairs agent is [[TheCutie Ellie Kemper, being as friendly as possible,]] but [[BreakTheCutie everyone loathes her anyway.]] Even the robot spits on her.* InspectorLynley [[spoiler:gets suspended and hauled up in front of IA after being accused of using excessive force on a suspect]] at the end of the episode "Word of God". [[spoiler:He is eventually cleared, after his partner Barbara Havers steps up and speaks out in his defense]].* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': In "What Doesn't Kill You", Internal Affairs investigates Jane in the aftermath of her shooting of Paddy Doyle. Her bending of the rules to protect Maura makes it look like she might have been in Doyle's pocket. Ultimately, Doyle's chief mole inside the police is revealed to be [[spoiler:the head of Internal Affairs]].* In ''Series/SledgeHammer'', the routine IA check goes pretty well, much to Captain Trunk's relief, until Sledge shows up. After witnessing the usual Sledge method of processing a suspect, the IA officer demands to see Lieutenant Hammer's service record, which has been carefully hidden from him. Rather than the usual slim file, it is brought to him... in a wheelbarrow. Sledge's file doesn't just have a filing cabinet of its own, it has a room of its own.* BarneyMiller has Lt. Scanlon, who embodies all the negative IAB stereotypes. He genuinely hates Barney and his men and constantly tries to nail them on something (which he never does). In the last episode, [[spoiler: he's really annoyed that he turns out to be the one to break the news of Barney's promotion to Deputy Inspector.]]* The IA officers in ''PersonOfInterest'' come across as well-meaning but [[PoliceAreUseless incompetent]]. Despite the fact that a ring of dirty cops known as HR is one of the major villains in the series, they have never caught any of them without outside help, and over the course of the second season get used as patsies by corrupt cops to strike at honest cops on three separate occasions.* In ''Series/BlueBloods'', the NYPDs Internal Affairs Bureau needs to tighten up it's recruiting standards. Season 1's Lt. Alex Bello is at first seen to be hard-nosed-but-professional ... but is later revealed to be part of the ultra-corrupt Blue Templar fraternity. Capt. Derek Elwood is introduced in Season 2, again tough-but-fair ... but who is also later revealed to be crooked and behind a frame up of Danny in Season 3.* On ''Series/NashBridges'', this was the specialty of detective Caitlin Cross. She was only shown performing these duties in two episodes: her first one where she investigates Nash for the killing of three supposedly dirty cops and another where she investigates Evan for allegedly stealing evidence.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', by Steve Jackson Games, has the forces of Heaven policed by the servants of Dominic, Archangel of Judgment. Though efficient at their job and sworn to be just, they are perpetually seen as cold-hearted pokerspines by most angels, particularly those who serve ArchangelMichael. (Their opposite numbers in Hell, by the way, couldn't be [[SecretPolice more different]].)* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', [=IntSec=] is this to the Troubleshooters (and citizens in general)... and THEY have their own Internal Affairs, which is even more universally hated and feared than [=IntSec=] in general.* The Inquisition in TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} serve as Internal Affairs for the rest of the Imperium and for themselves, each Inquisitor has unlimited operational authority and the power to judge when another Inquisitor has lost it.** They also have the authority to burn whole planets on the ''suspicion'' of corruption, this turned {{up to eleven}}** Besides the Inquisition, there's also the Minotaurs, the High Lords Of Terra's personal Space Marine chapter. Their main purpose seems to be fighting other loyalist chapters that have done something to piss off the High Lords.** According to the Literature/HorusHeresy books The Emperor also intended for the Space Wolves to be this, specializing them to hunt down other Space Marines that went rogue, but apart from the usual battles against Chaos Space Marines they don't seem to do this much anymore.** And then there's the Ordo Malleus, IA for the Inquisition. Though specifically consorting with daemons, after all, what other reason could there be for an Inquisitor to go bad?[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/GhostSquad'' shows the Internal Affairs point of view, with the main characters assigned to such a unit, often infiltrating police stations -- and befriending and/or sleeping with corrupt officers before stopping them.* As was the earlier ''Between The Lines''. Especially with regards to the 'sleeping with corrupt officers' part.* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', [[spoiler: Gianna Parasini]] is an Internal Affairs agent for the Noveria Development Corporation, assigned to eliminate corruption. In possibly one of the rarest examples of this trope ''ever'', helping her out with her investigation is the ''right'' thing to do.** The Spectres are cool enough that they are their own internal affairs department. One goes rogue, the Council sends another to off him.** Though despite the name, the NDC's Internal Affairs is not a "police police", but rather a ''company'' police[[note]]Noveria being a corporate world[[/note]].* Maxim Rukov, the protagonist of ''KGB''(AKA ''Conpsiracy'') is one, a special KGB investigator, who is determined to reveal huge corruption in his own organization.* The Seekers of the Chantry fill this role in regards to the Templars in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' as one of them interrogates a dwarf in trying to find the Champion of Kirkwall, who may or may not be responsible for the war that caused the Chantry to fall to pieces. The Seekers are, actually, a study of what happens when IA does nothing, or acts far too late. [[spoiler: All hell breaks loose as the mages, (innocent or not), fight back against an extermination order that Meredith delivers under false pretenses.]]** Although with the ''Exiled Prince DLC'', it's shown that [[spoiler: Leliana]] had arrived in Kirkwall during Act III to determine the situation and whether an Exalted March should be performed against the Free Marches. Elthina, Prince Sebastian Vael and (possibly) Hawke argue that the situation isn't ''that'' far gone and peace ''could'' still be achieved. It seems more that InternalAffairs ''was'' keeping an eye on the situation and watching all the key players closely, but they were blindsided when [[spoiler: Anders]] disrupted the game by tipping over the chessboard.*** Of course, the fact that IA interfering would, in this case, mean a ''genocide'' of any-and-all mages, it's understandable that they might not get involved until the breaking point.** Discussed further in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. The Seekers had investigated Meredith earlier, but they found so many [[EvilSorcerer maleficar]] in Kirkwall that they declared Meredith's harsh methods justified. Cassandra muses that if they had kept looking and examined the root causes, things might have gone very differently.* Completely inverted in ''HeavyRain''. FBIAgent Norman Jayden, sent in to solve the Origami Killer case, is constantly abused by KnightTemplar RabidCop Carter Blake, and DaChief is a plain old {{Jerkass}}.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* Subverted by Officer [=McGillicutty=], a Guest Character of the Week in ''Mac Hall.'' He's told to hand in his badge for being too dangerous, and does the CowboyCop fairly straight, even visiting a hooker with a heart of gold. However,[[spoiler: he ends up getting to the protagonist's house long after Animal Control has solved their monkey problem. So, he really ''was'' that incompetent.]] The insults they leave him with, combined with his face, kind of make you feel bad for the guy, though.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', when a bunch of thieves from the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores Union]] manage to sneak the captive necromancer [[OurElvesAreBetter Razravkar]] [[AntiHero Dominus]] out of the cells in the Anti Mage Police Headquarters, Captain [[StraightGay Schtolteheim]] [[InsufferableGenius Reinbach III]] orders Lieutenant [[DeadpanSnarker Irinthiel]] [[MasterOfIllusion Maurath]] to assemble a small group of trustworthy and cunning operatives from within the Anti Mage Police to not only locate the renegade necromancer but also to investigate the possibility of the Anti Mage Police having corrupt cops within it. This group becomes known as Shadowstrike and remains literally unknown to the rest of the AMP as Irinthiel reports only to Captain Reinbach and has full authority to arrest and investigate any AMP officer to discover whether they're moles or genuine servants of the [[TheMagocracy Magicracy of Alent]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]* TruthInTelevision: In David Simon's book ''Homicide'', one of the precinct detectives is investigating a police shooting (which is done by the Homicide department in Baltimore), and ends up completely disgusted almost to the point of retirement to discover the fact that his brother officers peddle the same lies and bullshit as the murder suspects he brings in.** This was reflected in ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', which was based on Simon's book; Pembleton is assigned to investigate a similar shooting, but encounters the same kind of dishonesty -- and it's further compounded by Giardello, a firm believer in the Brotherhood of the Badge, actively pressuring him to exonerate the cops when it's all but blindingly obvious that they're responsible.* The hostility is something every inspection agency has to deal with, the FDA vs. drug companies, union inspectors vs. the management. This is serious enough that the United States Department of ''Agriculture'' actually has a memorial wall commemorating inspectors killed in line of duty.* The London Metropolitan Police's internal affairs unit actually resorted to wiretapping and covert surveillance operations against corrupt officers at one point in TheSeventies. They needed to.[[/folder]]